Patents by Inventor Yohei Kudo

Yohei Kudo has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20230174385
    Abstract: Provided is a method for producing a lithium-containing solution that allows increasing a content rate of lithium in a solution after an eluting step, and suppressing an amount of an eluted solution used in a process after the eluting step, thus suppressing production cost of lithium. A method for producing a lithium-containing solution includes an adsorption step of bringing a lithium adsorbent obtained from lithium manganese oxide in contact with a low lithium-containing solution to obtain post-adsorption lithium manganese oxide, an eluting step of bringing the post-adsorption lithium manganese oxide in contact with an acid-containing solution to obtain an eluted solution, and a manganese oxidation step of oxidating manganese to obtain a lithium-containing solution with a suppressed manganese concentration. The adsorption step, the eluting step, and the manganese oxidation step are performed in this order, and the acid-containing solution includes the eluted solution with acid added.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 30, 2022
    Publication date: June 8, 2023
    Applicant: SUMITOMO METAL MINING CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Osamu IKEDA, Masatoshi TAKANO, Satoshi ASANO, Shin-ichi HEGURI, Shin-ya MATSUMOTO, Yohei KUDO, Yusuke SENBA, Kyohei MAEDA
  • Publication number: 20230079295
    Abstract: A method for producing lithium hydroxide that allows reducing a load of removing divalent or more ions with an ion-exchange resin is provided. The method for producing lithium hydroxide includes steps (1) to (3) below. (1) a neutralization step: a step of adding an alkali to a first lithium chloride containing liquid to obtain a post-neutralization liquid, (2) an ion-exchange step: a step of bringing the post-neutralization liquid into contact with an ion-exchange resin to obtain a second lithium chloride containing liquid, and (3) a conversion step: a step of electrodialyzing the second lithium chloride containing liquid to obtain a lithium hydroxide containing liquid. Since this producing method allows roughly removing divalent or more ions in the neutralization step, a load of metal removal with the ion-exchange resin is reducible.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 8, 2021
    Publication date: March 16, 2023
    Applicant: SUMITOMO METAL MINING CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Shin-ya MATSUMOTO, Masatoshi TAKANO, Shin-ichi HEGURI, Satoshi ASANO, Osamu IKEDA, Yohei KUDO
  • Publication number: 20220024776
    Abstract: Provided is a method for producing a lithium-containing solution that prevents the dissolution of the whole lithium manganese oxide while maintaining the efficiency of an elution step. The method for producing a lithium-containing solution comprises performing an adsorption step of contacting a lithium adsorbent obtained from lithium manganese oxide with a low lithium-containing liquid for adsorption to give post-adsorption lithium manganese oxide, an elution step of contacting the post-adsorption lithium manganese oxide with an acid solution to give a lithium-containing solution with residual manganese, and a manganese oxidation step of oxidating manganese to give a lithium-containing solution with a suppressed manganese concentration, performed in this order. The acid solution is a 0.5 mol/L or more and 4.0 mol/L or less hydrochloric acid solution.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 6, 2019
    Publication date: January 27, 2022
    Applicant: SUMITOMO METAL MINING CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Masatoshi TAKANO, Satoshi ASANO, Osamu IKEDA, Shin-ya MATSUMOTO, Yohei KUDO
  • Publication number: 20210197266
    Abstract: Provided is a method for controlling generation of scaling in a reaction vessel to reduce time and cost required for removal of the scaling in the process of producing nickel powder from a solution containing a nickel ammine sulfate complex. This is a method for producing nickel powder, including: adding, to the solution containing the nickel ammine sulfate complex, seed crystals in an amount of 0.3 times or more and 3 times or less the weight of nickel in the solution to form a slurry; and blowing hydrogen gas into the slurry to reduce a nickel complex ion and to thereby form a nickel precipitate.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 8, 2017
    Publication date: July 1, 2021
    Inventors: Shin-ichi Heguri, Yoshitomo Ozaki, Osamu Ikeda, Yohei Kudo
  • Publication number: 20200391177
    Abstract: A method for producing lithium manganese oxide that is a precursor of a lithium adsorbent under atmospheric pressure is provided. The method for producing a precursor of a lithium adsorbent comprises tire following steps (1) to (3): (1) A 1st mixing step of mixing a manganese salt and alkali hydroxide, so as to obtain a 1st slurry containing manganese hydroxide; (2) a 2nd mixing step of adding lithium hydroxide to the 1st slurry and then mixing the mixture to obtain a 2nd slurry; and (3) an oxidation step of adding an oxidizing agent to the 2nd slurry, so as to obtain a precursor of a lithium adsorbent. The method for producing a precursor of a lithium adsorbent comprises these steps, so that a precursor of a lithium adsorbent can be produced under atmospheric pressure. Therefore, a precursor of a lithium adsorbent can be produced at a limited cost.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 17, 2019
    Publication date: December 17, 2020
    Applicants: SUMITOMO METAL MINING CO., LTD., THE UNIVERSITY OF KITAKYUSHU
    Inventors: Masatoshi TAKANO, Shin-ya MATSUMOTO, Osamu IKEDA, Yohei KUDO, Satoshi ASANO, Kazuharu YOSHIZUKA, Syouhei NISHIHAMA
  • Patent number: 10766072
    Abstract: Provided is a method for producing high density nickel powder particularly having a median diameter of 100 to 160 ?m by controlling a particle size of nickel powder. The method includes: performing an initial operation by charging a pressure vessel equipped with a stirrer with a nickel ammine complex solution containing nickel in the concentration of 5 to 75 g/L together with seed crystals in the amount of 5 to 200 g per liter of the solution, increasing the temperature of the solution, and performing a reduction reaction with hydrogen by blowing hydrogen gas into the pressure vessel, thereby obtaining the nickel contained in the nickel ammine complex solution as nickel powder; and thereafter, performing a specified operation A repeatedly at least once to obtain the nickel powder having the median diameter of 100 to 160 ?m and a bulk density of 1 to 4.5 g/cm3.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 25, 2016
    Date of Patent: September 8, 2020
    Assignee: SUMITOMO METAL MINING CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Hideki Ohara, Yoshitomo Ozaki, Shin-ichi Heguri, Kazuyuki Takaishi, Osamu Ikeda, Tomoaki Yoneyama, Yohei Kudo
  • Patent number: 10549351
    Abstract: A method for producing nickel powder sequentially includes: a mixing step of adding, to a nickel ammine sulfate complex solution, an insoluble solid as seed crystals and a polyacrylate or lignosulfonate as a dispersant to form a mixed slurry; and a reduction and precipitation step of charging a reaction vessel with the mixed slurry and blowing hydrogen gas into the mixed slurry in the reaction vessel to reduce nickel complex ions in the mixed slurry to form nickel precipitate on the surface of the insoluble solid, wherein the amount of the dispersant added in the mixing step is controlled to control the number of the nickel powder obtained by formation of the nickel precipitate in the reduction and precipitation step.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 26, 2015
    Date of Patent: February 4, 2020
    Assignee: Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Shin-ichi Heguri, Yoshitomo Ozaki, Kazuyuki Takaishi, Tomoaki Yoneyama, Hideki Ohara, Osamu Ikeda, Yohei Kudo
  • Patent number: 10500644
    Abstract: Provided a production method for reducing the content level of sulfur and carbon which are impurities in nickel powder to improve the quality of nickel powder produced by a complexing reduction method. The method of producing nickel powder having low carbon and sulfur concentrations includes: a complexing treatment of adding a complexing agent to a nickel sulfate aqueous solution to form a solution containing nickel complex ions; maintaining the solution containing nickel complex ions at a solution temperature of 150 to 250° C. in a pressure vessel and blowing hydrogen gas into the solution containing nickel complex ions to perform hydrogen reduction to produce nickel powder; washing the nickel powder with water; and then roasting the nickel powder washed with water in a mixed gas atmosphere of nitrogen and hydrogen.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 13, 2015
    Date of Patent: December 10, 2019
    Assignee: Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Yoshitomo Ozaki, Shin-ichi Heguri, Kazuyuki Takaishi, Osamu Ikeda, Hideki Ohara, Tomoaki Yoneyama, Yohei Kudo
  • Patent number: 10471514
    Abstract: Provided is an efficient method for producing nickel powder from a solution containing a nickel ammine complex, the method including adding seed crystals to a solution containing a nickel ammine complex and subjecting the resulting mixture to hydrogen reduction under high temperatures and high pressures to produce nickel powder, which makes it possible to maintain the quality of the nickel powder produced and reduce the amount of the seed crystals used. The method for producing nickel powder is characterized by adding seed crystals and a dispersant having an anionic functional group to the solution containing a nickel ammine complex to form a mixture slurry, and subjecting the mixture slurry to pressurized hydrogen reduction treatment by blowing hydrogen into the mixture slurry in a high temperature and high pressure atmosphere to cause a reduction reaction, thereby reducing the nickel ammine complex in the mixture slurry to obtain nickel powder.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 9, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 12, 2019
    Assignees: KOCHI UNIVERSITY, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY CORPORATION, Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kazumichi Yanagisawa, Junhao Zhang, Osamu Ikeda, Hideki Ohara, Tomoaki Yoneyama, Yohei Kudo, Shin-ichi Heguri
  • Patent number: 10434577
    Abstract: Provided is nickel powder obtained by adding seed crystals to a nickel ammine complex solution and performing hydrogen reduction reaction under high temperatures and high pressures, wherein the nickel powder does not produce dust during handling, and a container can be efficiently filled with the nickel powder. The method for producing nickel powder includes: adding seed crystals and a surfactant having a nonionic or anionic functional group to a solution containing a nickel ammine complex to forma mixed slurry; and subjecting the mixed slurry to hydrogen reduction under high temperature and high pressure conditions in a pressure vessel to obtain nickel powder from the mixed slurry.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 8, 2019
    Assignees: KOCHI UNIVERSITY, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY CORPORATION, SUMITOMO METAL MINING CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Kazumichi Yanagisawa, Junhao Zhang, Kazuyuki Takaishi, Tomoaki Yoneyama, Shin-ichi Heguri, Hideki Ohara, Osamu Ikeda, Yohei Kudo, Yoshitomo Ozaki
  • Patent number: 10220446
    Abstract: Provided is a method for producing fine nickel powder used as suitable seed crystals for producing nickel powder from a solution containing a nickel ammine sulfate complex. The method for producing nickel powder sequentially comprises: a mixing step of adding, to a solution containing a nickel ammine sulfate complex, an insoluble solid which is insoluble in the solution to form a mixed slurry; a reduction and precipitation step of charging a reaction vessel with the mixed slurry and then blowing hydrogen gas into the mixed slurry in the reaction vessel to reduce nickel complex ions contained in the mixed slurry to form nickel precipitate on a surface of the insoluble solid; and a separation step of separating the nickel precipitate on the surface of the insoluble solid from the surface of the insoluble solid to form nickel powder.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 17, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2019
    Assignee: Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Kazumichi Yanagisawa, Junhao Zhang, Shin-ichi Heguri, Yoshitomo Ozaki, Kazuyuki Takaishi, Hideki Ohara, Tomoaki Yoneyama, Osamu Ikeda, Yohei Kudo
  • Publication number: 20190061006
    Abstract: Provided is a method for producing seed crystals of cobalt powder, sequentially including: a complexing step of adding ammonia, an ammonia compound solution, or both of ammonia and an ammonia compound solution to a cobalt sulfate solution to obtain a solution containing a cobalt ammine sulfate complex; a mixing step of adding a solid to the solution containing the cobalt ammine sulfate complex to form a mixture slurry; a reduction and precipitation step of charging a reaction vessel with the mixture slurry, blowing hydrogen gas into the reaction vessel and reducing cobalt contained in the mixture slurry to obtain a cobalt powder slurry containing cobalt precipitate with a cobalt component precipitated on the surface of the solid as cobalt powder; and a solid-liquid separation step of performing solid-liquid separation on the cobalt powder slurry to obtain cobalt precipitate and a solution after reduction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 17, 2016
    Publication date: February 28, 2019
    Inventors: Osamu Ikeda, Ryo-ma Yamaguma, Yoshitomo Ozaki, Kazuyuki Takaishi, Shin-ichi Heguri, Yohei Kudo, Yasuo Doi
  • Publication number: 20190054541
    Abstract: Provided is a method for producing high density nickel powder particularly having a median diameter of 100 to 160 ?m by controlling a particle size of nickel powder. The method includes: performing an initial operation by charging a pressure vessel equipped with a stirrer with a nickel ammine complex solution containing nickel in the concentration of 5 to 75 g/L together with seed crystals in the amount of 5 to 200 g per liter of the solution, increasing the temperature of the solution, and performing a reduction reaction with hydrogen by blowing hydrogen gas into the pressure vessel, thereby obtaining the nickel contained in the nickel ammine complex solution as nickel powder; and thereafter, performing a specified operation A repeatedly at least once to obtain the nickel powder having the median diameter of 100 to 160 ?m and a bulk density of 1 to 4.5 g/cm3.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 25, 2016
    Publication date: February 21, 2019
    Inventors: Hideki Ohara, Yoshitomo Ozaki, Shin-ichi Heguri, Kazuyuki Takaishi, Osamu Ikeda, Tomoaki Yoneyama, Yohei Kudo
  • Patent number: 10118224
    Abstract: Provided is a method for producing nickel powder from a nickel ammine sulfate complex solution, comprising treatment steps of: (1) a seed crystal production step of producing nickel powder having an average particle size of 0.1 to 5 ?m; (2) a seed crystal addition step of adding the nickel powder obtained in the step (1) as seed crystals to form a mixed slurry; (3) a reduction step of forming a reduced slurry containing nickel powder formed by precipitation of a nickel component in the mixed slurry on the seed crystals; and (4) a growth step of performing solid-liquid separation to separate and recover the nickel powder as a solid phase component and then blowing hydrogen gas into a solution prepared by adding the nickel ammine sulfate complex solution to the recovered nickel powder to grow the nickel powder to form high purity nickel powder.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 27, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 6, 2018
    Assignees: KOCHI UNIVERSITY, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY CORPORATION, SUMITOMO METAL MINING CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Kazumichi Yanagisawa, Junhao Zhang, Shin-ichi Heguri, Hideki Ohara, Osamu Ikeda, Tomoaki Yoneyama, Yohei Kudo, Yoshitomo Ozaki
  • Patent number: 10092955
    Abstract: Provided is a method for producing fine nickel powder used as suitable seed crystals for producing nickel powder from a solution containing a nickel ammine sulfate complex. The method for producing nickel powder sequentially includes: a mixing step of adding, to a solution containing a nickel ammine sulfate complex, a dispersant containing a sulfonate and an insoluble solid which is insoluble in the solution to form a mixed slurry; a reduction and precipitation step of charging a reaction vessel with the mixed slurry and then blowing hydrogen gas into the mixed slurry in the reaction vessel to reduce nickel complex ions contained in the mixed slurry to form nickel precipitate on a surface of the insoluble solid; and a separation step of separating the nickel precipitate on the surface of the insoluble solid from the surface of the insoluble solid to form nickel powder.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 17, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 9, 2018
    Assignees: KOCHI UNIVERSITY, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY CORPORATION, SUMITOMO METAL MINING CO., LTD.
    Inventors: Kazumichi Yanagisawa, Junhao Zhang, Shin-ichi Heguri, Yoshitomo Ozaki, Kazuyuki Takaishi, Hideki Ohara, Tomoaki Yoneyama, Osamu Ikeda, Yohei Kudo
  • Publication number: 20180169764
    Abstract: Provided is a method for producing cobalt powder with high reaction efficiency by controlling the amount of added seed crystals when cobalt powder is produced from a solution containing a cobalt ammine sulfate complex. The method sequentially includes: a mixing step of adding, to the solution containing a cobalt ammine sulfate complex, cobalt powder as seed crystals in an amount of 1.5 times or more and 3.0 times or less the amount of cobalt contained in the solution and then adding a dispersant in an amount of 1.5% by weight to 3.0% by weight of the added seed crystals to form a mixture slurry; and a reduction and precipitation step of charging a reaction vessel with the mixture slurry and then blowing hydrogen gas into the mixture slurry to reduce cobalt complex ions contained in the mixture slurry to form cobalt precipitate on the surface of the seed crystals.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 27, 2016
    Publication date: June 21, 2018
    Inventors: Ryo-ma Yamaguma, Yoshitomo Ozaki, Kazuyuki Takaishi, Shin-ichi Heguri, Osamu Ikeda, Yohei Kudo, Yasuo Doi
  • Publication number: 20180056399
    Abstract: Provided is a production method for producing coarse particles of high purity Co powder from a cobalt ammine sulfate complex solution using fine Co powder and using industrially inexpensive H2 gas.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 16, 2016
    Publication date: March 1, 2018
    Inventors: Shin-ichi Heguri, Yoshitomo Ozaki, Kazuyuki Takaishi, Yasuo Doi, Osamu Ikeda, Ryoma Yamaguma, Yohei Kudo
  • Publication number: 20180009037
    Abstract: A method for producing nickel powder sequentially includes: a mixing step of adding, to a nickel ammine sulfate complex solution, an insoluble solid as seed crystals and a polyacrylate or lignosulfonate as a dispersant to form a mixed slurry; and a reduction and precipitation step of charging a reaction vessel with the mixed slurry and blowing hydrogen gas into the mixed slurry in the reaction vessel to reduce nickel complex ions in the mixed slurry to form nickel precipitate on the surface of the insoluble solid, wherein the amount of the dispersant added in the mixing step is controlled to control the number of the nickel powder obtained by formation of the nickel precipitate in the reduction and precipitation step.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 26, 2015
    Publication date: January 11, 2018
    Inventors: Shin-ichi Heguri, Yoshitomo Ozaki, Kazuyuki Takaishi, Tomoaki Yoneyama, Hideki Ohara, Osamu Ikeda, Yohei Kudo
  • Patent number: 9700942
    Abstract: Provided are a method for producing nickel seed crystals that maintains and improves the quality of nickel powder at a low cost while suppressing production cost and environmental load in the production of nickel powder, by optimizing the amount of hydrazine added when producing fine nickel powder as seed crystals using hydrazine; and a method for producing nickel powder using the nickel seed crystals. The method for producing seed crystals used for producing hydrogen-reduced nickel powder, including adding, to an acid solution containing nickel ions that is maintained at a temperature of 50 to 60° C., hydrazine of 1 to 1.25 mol per 1 mol of a nickel component contained in the acid solution to produce the seed crystals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 3, 2015
    Date of Patent: July 11, 2017
    Assignee: Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Tomoaki Yoneyama, Shin-ichi Heguri, Hideki Ohara, Osamu Ikeda, Yohei Kudo
  • Publication number: 20170095862
    Abstract: Provided is nickel powder obtained by adding seed crystals to a nickel ammine complex solution and performing hydrogen reduction reaction under high temperatures and high pressures, wherein the nickel powder does not produce dust during handling, and a container can be efficiently filled with the nickel powder. The method for producing nickel powder includes: adding seed crystals and a surfactant having a nonionic or anionic functional group to a solution containing a nickel ammine complex to forma mixed slurry; and subjecting the mixed slurry to hydrogen reduction under high temperature and high pressure conditions in a pressure vessel to obtain nickel powder from the mixed slurry.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 24, 2015
    Publication date: April 6, 2017
    Inventors: Kazumichi Yanagisawa, Junhao Zhang, Kazuyuki Takaishi, Tomoaki Yoneyama, Shin-ichi Heguri, Hideki Ohara, Osamu Ikeda, Yohei Kudo, Yoshitomo Ozaki